CDC Studies On Restaurant Food Handling and Food Safety Practices:  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently published findings from studies on food handling and food safety practices.  The studies cover beef grinding logs, chicken handling, egg handling, food allergen knowledge, food cooling, food prep, ground beef handling, hand hygiene, ill food workers, leafy green handling, microwave cooking, manager and employee certification, deli food safety, and tomato handling.  This compilation is available at the CDC Website.

WHO: 10 Facts On Food Safety: The World Health Organization has published 10 Facts On Food Safety. It is a short online slide show that describes some interesting points about foodborne illness that may ‘hit home’ for your staff when conducting food safety training. For more about meaningful training techniques and the Oral Culture Learning Project, visit the U. S. Food and Drug Administration.

Food Safety for the Big Game:  It’s a great time to think about keeping guests safe at your big game party.  Food safety is a key ingredient to any successful event, and a party celebrating your favorite team should be no exception.  Take a look at Food Safety News for a great reminder!  Foodsafety.gov is a great resource as well. READ MORE.

If you are a Twitter enthusiast, then you should follow @USDAFoodSafety!  This is a great account to watch with tips and information ranging from topics including the new FOODKEEPER app to other great food safety messages.

It’s Not Too Late To Celebrate National Food Safety Month!  This year National Food Safety Month is focusing on viruses.  This great web page has videos, activities, and infographics directed toward understanding the spread of viruses, how to prevent infection and keeping guests safe.

Handwashing Is Critical to the Health of Your Operation…Another Story: This feature is a great reminder of how important personal employee hygiene is to your operation. Read Food Quality and Safety for more information. And for fun, find out more about Hand Hygiene’s Critical Role in Food Safety. Food Safety Law Breakers Find Themselves in Hot Water: Jail time for many folks sentenced for breaking food safety laws is becoming more frequent. Remember the 500,000,000 eggs that were recalled? Read how the owners of Quality Egg, LLC were sentenced here. A simple substitution in ingredients killed one man and the perpetrator found guilty of manslaughter. Find out more in the New York Daily News. Be mindful of what you and your employees are doing in your operation.

Norovirus, “Spewnami” and Vomit-Readiness Plans at the Conference for Food Protection: The CFP met last week at its biennial meeting to discuss matters of food safety. A hot topic this year was Norovirus and how management of grocery stores and other retail outlets, like restaurants, should react with appropriate cleaning, sanitization and restriction/deep cleaning measures. Food Safety News has more on this topic and other items of interest from the Conference.
CDC Reports Deli Slicers Aren’t Cleaned As Frequently As Recommended: Deli (meat) slicers have been frequently associated with cross-contamination of pathogens, particularly Listeria monocytogenes. Deli slicers should be broken down, cleaned and sanitized every 4 hours when in use as recommended by the US FDA’s Food Code. This report notes findings that don’t meet that requirement. Find out more at the Centers for Disease Control or Food Safety News.

Mike Taylor, Fed’s Food Safety Guru, Announces Exit: Mike Taylor, the food safety chief for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced his resignation. Taylor has been in this role with the federal government for seven years. With his leadership, the federal government has turned around its food safety stance and has begun implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act. Read more about Mike Taylor in the Food Safety News.

PulseNet Celebrates 20 Years of Public Health: PulseNet is a success in foodborne illness detection. This national network of laboratories “connects the dots” for federal, state and local health officials. Find out more about PulseNet by visiting the Centers for Disease Control.

Ten Tips for Creating A Sustained Food Safety Culture: Creating a culture of food safety is your key to reduced inspection violations and improved risk management. SafeStaff materials and training are your go-to resource, and these tips from Food Safety Tech will help strengthen and sustain your food safety culture. Take a look!

Recently Released Dietary Guidelines for Americans Includes a Food Safety Appendix: This Appendix includes general food safety information, separate, cooking, chilling, a minimum safe temperatures for cooking chart, handwashing, sanitation in the kitchen, risky eating behaviors, susceptible populations and additional resources. It is an excellent brief and brief food safety resource. Check it out here.

Season’s Greetings!  Holiday celebrations involving food at Florida’s restaurants are a festive way to enjoy friends, co-workers and family.  To be certain that uninvited guests, such as pathogens causing foodborne illness, are not invited, be vigilant in upholding food safety during this busy time of year.

Maintain the culture of food safety. Encourage employees to take the time to correctly prepare, thaw, cook, cool and reheat food.  Remind employees to take the time necessary to maintain proper hygiene:  wash and dry hands as required, maintain clothing, nails and hair as specified.  Don’t take short cuts when it comes to the safety of the food that you are serving to your guests.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has posted a Holiday Food Safety resource page that offers a Holiday Food Safety Success Kit, a consumer Holiday Food Safety Video in both English and Spanish, and while targeted for consumers, is applicable for employees cooking at home because we don’t want to bring illness to work, and information about ready-to-cook foods reminding Holiday cooks to prepare all food to correct temperature.  In addition to that webpage, the FDA has included a Food Safety Tips for Healthy Holidays web page link that emphasizes clean, separate, cook and chill concepts.